I have just faced a Polish IM (Michal Luch, 2353 ELO FIDE) in a chess tournament in Spain and managed to draw (the IM title ranks just below the title of grandmaster).

This result is a major achievement that I will treasure for a while!

▶️ One key takeway => there is no secret in life, you need to study a lot!

I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks solving tactical puzzles, memorizing opening lines (in particular in the Semi-Slav, which was fortunately played in my game against the IM!), studying endgame theory, etc.

There is no shortcut: this is something that you need to do if you want to perform and improve. The more you study/practice, the better you will become. The main difficulty of this is the amount of time you invest on it.

The same applies to any other area : if you want to become for instance a good tax lawyer, you also need to study a lot.

For the chess amateurs: in the position below, I was Black and played 22… Rae8. I gained an advantage after 23. Red1, Qe5.

Denis-Emmanuel Philippe